


There Are Four Rules

by QuenchiestCactusJuice99



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Compliant, Oneshot, because there’s nothing in canon that disproves this :p, mentions of the uchiha massacre
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:14:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21774259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuenchiestCactusJuice99/pseuds/QuenchiestCactusJuice99
Summary: Takihita Uzugami lives, loves, and breathes books.There are four rules Academy students are given as a sort of... guideline for their learning experience.But then... something happens.Alternatively: a glimpse into the life of an Academy student who notices a change in the curriculum after the Uchiha Massacre.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	There Are Four Rules

**Author's Note:**

> Yep, another angst oneshot. I’m not going to apologize this time bc I actually like this one, lol. Enjoy!

Takihita Uzugami lives, loves, and breathes books. Knowledge, more accurately, but books are always better than people. He is only in the Academy because his parents want him to either become a shinobi, or drop out after a few years and still give them the prestige that comes from a civilian family having a child who passed the entrance exam.

(Uzugami only didn’t purposefully fail because his parents are  _ scary.  _ And… also maybe because Academy students are allowed access to materials in the library regular civilians aren’t.)

But Uzugami lives, loves, and breathes knowledge, which means he is good at memorizing all the things the Academy instructors tell them to. He knows they say to memorize these things only in efforts to get the students to listen closer than they perhaps would otherwise, but what else is he going to do?

His taijutsu is passable, and he doesn’t want to spend any more time on  _ that _ when there are books to be read.

There are four rules Academy students are given as a sort of… guideline for their learning experience. A shinobi is agile. A shinobi cannot control their chakra capacity. A shinobi’s lifeblood is deception and stealth. And a shinobi never stops training.

Uzugami knows these rules as intimately as he knows the flinch the comes from his instructors the first three, five times they hear his name.

(He knows his parents well, and they are  _ spiteful. _ He knows that they have named him after what some claim to have been Konoha’s worst failure.)

His fellow students, Uzugami is sure, have never even glanced at the rules. This is okay. He knows the rules are not important, simply there to remind of what might be expected should they graduate, but they are another piece of knowledge and he holds tight to them.

There are, his instructors say, four rules. A shinobi is agile, agile enough to dodge kunai and barehanded strikes alike - a clumsy shinobi is a dead shinobi.

A shinobi cannot control their chakra capacity, but they  _ can  _ control what they do with it - a shinobi without resourcefulness is a dead shinobi.

A shinobi’s lifeblood is deception and stealth, trickery runs through their veins because it is how they survive - a loud shinobi is a dead shinobi.

A shinobi never stops training, never quits honing their skills, never stops testing themselves to stay sharp and strong - a shinobi whose skills have atrophied is a dead shinobi.

There are four rules. If Uzugami knows nothing else, he knows that, at least.

But then… something happens. Some _ one  _ happens.  _ Uchiha Itachi, _ the whispers say,  _ massacred his whole clan in a single night. _

Uzugami’s parents panic, tell him to drop out, come home, but-

Well. Uzugami is twelve, and nearing graduation. He never thought he’d stay this long, but he has, and he has devoured all of the knowledge available to him.

He wants more. Even though the thought that just shy of four hundred people had been killed in a  _ night  _ is terrifying, Uzugami is more terrified of the yawning pit inside him that only widens the more he feeds it. 

Yet, he feels, should he  _ not _ feed it, it will swallow him up instead. So he stays in the Academy to gain more, more, more knowledge, and he notices-

Something has changed.

(Unbeknownst to him, word is sweeping through the upper ranks.  _ Uchiha Itachi told his brother he did it to test his strength.) _

Uzugami knows his classmates haven’t noticed the change. But he has.

There are, his instructors say grimly, three rules.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading y’all, I actually wrote this at eleven last night so if you can make sense of it, go ahead and leave me a comment to tell me what you think!


End file.
